Caliburger

Following recent developments, Jumeirah Beach Road has turned into something of a hub for burger joints both local and international. One of the latest openings is Caliburger, which (unsurprisingly from its name) comes to Dubai from its home in the surfer’s paradise of California.

Consequently, the venue is decorated in beachy pastel tones of baby blue, lilac and soft, sandy yellow. The furniture inside looks like it should be outside at a beachside eatery. And the walls are decorated with colourful skateboards, a surf board and a white cut-out of surfers. You’ll also find a huge screen taking up almost an entire wall, which (since the sound is off), we assume is playing testimonials of Californian hipsters (judging by all the rolled up sleeves) saying how much they love a Caliburger burger. In between these video clips are quotations from US publications such as The Huffington Post, rating Caliburger for being top for this and top for that. Among them, is a claim by Bloomberg that Caliburger is among the top five burger concepts in the world. Frankly, being one of the top five burger restaurants in and around Jumeirah would be tough.

This menu is both in Arabic and English, but alternating between only one language at a time, you may feel a little bit like you’re at Dubai Airport, as you wait for the screens to revolve back to your preferred language. Once ordered, diners are given a buzzer to collect their food – which is ready pretty quickly.

The menu is a short list of classic beef and chicken burgers, with one relatively unexpected exception being the chipotle barbecue chicken burger. The cali double burger looked relatively tame in size for a double patty sandwich. Eating it was a pretty average fast food experience. It wasn’t bad. Just ordinary. The bun was sweet, pretty cheap-tasting, white bread. Those patties were thin, and yes, they were made with lean beef, but they were also fairly dry and a little grisly too. The fries, however, were a thick, skin-on affair that were creamy, but bizarrely sweet-tasting inside. The vanilla milkshake tasted like molten vanilla ice cream. Little to complain about there.

Caliburger is a decent, pleasantly standard fast food option. We would, however, like to take the staff at Bloomberg on a burger crawl of Dubai and see if they still agree with their original statement about the globe.